Many plants are genetically transformed with exogenous nucleic acids (e.g., transgenes) to introduce desirable traits, for example, to improve agricultural value. Examples of improvements in agricultural value that can be achieved through genetic transformation include: improved nutritional quality, increased yield, pest or disease resistance, drought and stress tolerance, improved horticultural quality (e.g., improved pigmentation and/or growth), herbicide resistance, production of industrially useful compounds and/or materials from the plant, and/or production of pharmaceuticals. The introduction of cloned genes into plant cells and recovery of stable fertile transgenic plants can be used to make a genetic modification of a plant stable through multiple generations, and thereby allow the genetic engineering of a crop plant.
In methods for genetic transformation and transgenic plant production, exogenous DNA is typically randomly introduced into the nuclear or plastid DNA of a eukaryotic plant cell, followed by isolation of cells containing integrated exogenous DNA, and subsequent regeneration of a stably transformed plant. Transgenic plants were typically generated by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation technology. Successes with these techniques spurred the development of other methods to introduce a nucleic acid molecule of interest into the genome of a plant, such as PEG-mediated DNA uptake in protoplasts, microprojectile bombardment, and silicon whisker-mediated transformation.
In all of these plant transformation methods, however, the exogenous nucleic acids incorporated in the plant genome are integrated randomly in the genome of the plant cell, and in unpredictable copy number. Terada et al. (2002) Nat Biotechnol 20(10):1030; Terada et al. (2007) Plant Physiol 144(2):846; D'Halluin et al. (2008) Plant Biotechnology J. 6(1):93. For example, the transgenes are frequently integrated in the form of sequence repeats, either of the whole transgene or of parts thereof. Such a complex integration pattern commonly adversely impacts the expression level of the integrated nucleic acid (e.g., by destruction of transcribed RNA through post-transcriptional gene silencing mechanisms, or by inducing methylation of the integrated DNA). Also, the location of the integration site commonly influences the level of expression of the integrated nucleic acid. Moreover, the integration of the exogenous DNA may have a disruptive effect on the region of the genome where the integration occurs, and thereby influence or disturb the normal function of that target region to produce undesirable side-effects. The combination of factors including the foregoing results in a wide variation in the level of expression of transgene or exogenous DNA (and overall agronomic quality) between different transgenic plant cell and plant lines, even those created by the same methods. Because the integration is random, these effects are not able to be controlled by the practitioner while he or she attempts to produce a new plant with desirable characteristics.
The foregoing considerations necessitate that, whenever the effects of introducing a particular exogenous nucleic acid into a plant is investigated, a large number of transgenic plant lines must be generated and analyzed in order to obtain significant results. Likewise, in the generation of a transgenic plant containing a particular integrated nucleic acid so as to provide the transgenic plant with a desired phenotype, a large population of independently created transgenic plant lines must be created to allow the selection of a plant line with optimal expression of the nucleic acid, and with minimal or no side-effects on the overall phenotype and performance of the transgenic plant. These practical considerations take on added importance in transgenic plants created by inserting multiple exogenous nucleic acids (i.e., gene stacking). In such plants, phenomena such as post-transcriptional gene silencing may be amplified.
Several methods have been developed in an effort to control transgene insertion in plants. See, e.g., Kumar and Fladung (2001) Trends Plant Sci. 6:155-9. These methods rely on homologous recombination-based transgene integration, which has been successfully applied both in prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes. Paszkowski et al. (1988) EMBO J. 7:4021-6. However, until recently in plants, the predominant mechanism for transgene integration has been based on illegitimate recombination, which involves little homology between recombining DNA strands. A major challenge in this area is therefore the detection and selective generation of rare homologous recombination events, which are masked by far more efficient integration events via illegitimate recombination. Moreover, even if the selective generation and detection of targeted homologous recombination events is achieved, the event must be targeted to a desirable location in the host genome in order to realize the maximum benefit of this strategy.
For example, an assumed benefit of targeted genetic transformation is the reduction in event-to-event variability of transgene expression, as compared to transformation events that are obtained from random integration. A further assumed benefit is a significant reduction in the number of events required to screen introduced nucleic acids, sort transformation constructs, and produce events that contribute to desirable overall characteristics in the resulting transgenic plant. A critical factor required to realize these benefits is the identification of specific locations in the genome where transgene performance is consistent, and if possible, where adverse effects on the host plant are eliminated or minimized.
Recently, methods and compositions for targeted cleavage of genomic DNA have been described. Such targeted cleavage events can be used, for example, to induce targeted mutagenesis, induce targeted deletions of cellular DNA sequences, and facilitate targeted recombination and integration at a predetermined chromosomal locus. See, for example, Urnov et al. (2010) Nature 435(7042):646-51; United States Patent Publications 20030232410; 20050208489; 20050026157; 20050064474; 20060188987; 20090263900; 20090117617; 20100047805; 20110207221; 20110301073; 2011089775; 20110239315; 20110145940; and International Publication WO 2007/014275, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties for all purposes. Cleavage can occur through the use of specific nucleases such as engineered zinc finger nucleases (ZFN), transcription-activator like effector nucleases (TALENs), or using the CRISPR/Cas system with an engineered crRNA/tracr RNA (‘single guide RNA’) to guide specific cleavage. U.S. Patent Publication No. 20080182332 describes the use of non-canonical zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) for targeted modification of plant genomes; U.S. Patent Publication No. 20090205083 describes ZFN-mediated targeted modification of a plant EPSPS locus; U.S. Patent Publication No. 20100199389 describes targeted modification of a plant Zp15 locus and U.S. Patent Publication No. 20110167521 describes targeted modification of plant genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis. In addition, Moehle et al. (2007) Proc. Natl. Acad, Sci. USA 104(9):3055-3060 describes using designed ZFNs for targeted gene addition at a specified locus. U.S. Patent Publication 20110041195 describes methods of making homozygous diploid organisms.
However, there remains a need for compositions and methods for modifying and/or modulating expression of FAD2 genes in plants, including generation of plants with targeted insertions of desired transgenes at the FAD2 locus.